Thursday, July 7, 2011

So the dust has settled after a tough 2-1 loss to Sweden by the United States women in the 2011 World Cup, and it was not a pretty outing. The ladies went down two before getting a weak goal by Abby Wambach late in the game, but it would not be enough. You would have hoped that the women would have come out and delivered the same kind of impressive performance that they did against Columbia the other day, but Sweden definitely looked the stronger side on Wednesday. The loss doesn't knock the U.S. out of the tournament - both teams were already qualified for the quarterfinals - but it does set up a matchup against Brazil on Saturday.

That's all that the U.S. and Sweden were really playing for in their group stage finale, the opportunity to not have to face Brazil. Sweden will now take on Australia on Sunday morning, while the U.S. will take on Brazil at 10:30am CST on ESPN. Immediately after the game, I saw an article talking about how grim the USA's title chances are after this loss because we have to face Brazil. That theory doesn't really make sense to me, since we were going to have to face them in one of the next two games anyway. Yeah, the loss hurts as far as momentum, but here's hoping that the women can learn from their mistakes and avoid another game like this the rest of the way.